Response
- This belief is not accepted even by the scientific evolutionary community, 1 even though references to it may occasionally show up in popular media.
- These structures are not gills or slits, they are simply folds in the skin. 2
- The drawings by Ernst Haeckel claiming to prove his theory were shown to be fraudulent.
Debate
Evolutionist: Although these structures are not technically gill slits, they still demonstrate evolution since vertebrate embryos share this structure. This is still evidence for common descent. 3
Response: This is really a change of subject. The gill slits argument remains a deceptive and fraudulent argument.
In any case, similarities between organisms and the hierarchy of organisms are not evidence for evolution. Rather, they are evidence of a common designer. All vertebrates also have a backbone, blood, DNA, and many other similarities; but we do not believe these demonstrate evolution. A good designer reuses design, and God has done the same thing.
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Notes
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pharyngeal_slit, accessed 2016 March ↩
- http://www.answersingenesis.org/articles/2007/03/14/fishy-gill-slits ↩
- http://www.talkorigins.org/indexcc/CB/CB704.html, accessed 2016 March ↩